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lED STATES OF AMERICA. 



1 



TOBACCO: 



ITS 



PHYSICAL, MENTAL, MORAL AND 
SOCIAL INFLUENCES, 



BY 



Jiev. B. W. CHASE, A.M. 



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PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 



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COPYRIGHT, 1878. 
By B. W. CHASE. 






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CONTENTS 



♦ ♦♦ 



PAGE. 

Introduction. - - - - - - - 5 

The Physical Effects of Tobacco. - 7 

On the Digestive Organs. 14 

On the Circulatory Organs. 21 

On the Respiratory Organs. 24 

On the Secretory Organs. - 31 

On the Muscular System. 35 

On the Nervous System. - 35 

On the Senses. - - 43 

On the Yoice. 47 

The Mental Effects of Tobacco. 51 

The Moral Effects of Tobacco. 63 

The Social Effects of Tobacco. 77 



INTRODUCTION 



It is due to the perversity of man's nature 
that many of the evil influences of this world 
are not recognized until they have well-nigh 
overcome us. There was a time when the 
use of alcoholic drinks was not considered by 
most as a sin. Not only the doctor and the 
lawyer, but the deacon and the minister, took 
them to the extent even of intoxication. In 
the march of reforms, however, the evil ap- 
pears; and now no one is satisfied with a 
wine-bibbing minister. Tobacco sustains the 
same relation to morals and religion now that 
alcohol did sixty or seventy years ago. Any 



b TOBACCO. 

one who had the courage to write on the 
subject was exposed to ridicule. So this at- 
tempt to portray one of the greatest evils of 
the present day may subject the author to 
scorn and contempt, but it is made with the 
hope that its light may shine into some dark 
place to show the degradation and ruin caused 
by this recruiting officer to the alcoholic 
ranks. 




TOBACCO : 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS 




I. 



It is a sin to do anything that will injure 
the physical system. God has given us our 
powers for useful purposes. If we injure 
or weaken them unnecessarily, we do a worse 
thing than he who squanders his patrimony 
and thereby becomes dependent upon the 
charity of others. To indicate that the use of 
Tobacco injures those powers of the physical 
nature, it is proposed to consider, in the first 
place, the general influence, and then to call 



10 TOBACCO. 

the reader's attention to its more particular 
effects upon the system. 

Those who have been accustomed to its use 
testify that it exhilarates, and when its influence 
is withdrawn there is a depression, such as 
results from abstaining from dram-drinking. 
These results are produced by the poisonous 
elements of the narcotic. One of these is 
called nicotianin, and another nicotine. They 
belong to the same class of poisons . as 
strychnine, arsenic and prussic acid. If either 
of these could be mixed with other elements, 
so as not to be immediately fatal, no one 
would be so foolish as to advocate their 
continued use. There would be danger of 
their entering into the circulation and destroy- 
ing, or at least diminishing, the vital energy. 
There can be no less danger to one, who uses 
Tobacco in any form, of taking the poison 
nicotine into the system ; and the effect would 
be as injurious. When separated from the 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 11 

other elements of Tobacco this poison is as 
deadly as either of those mentioned. Many- 
experiments have been made with it, and all 
prove it to be a powerful poison. " Mr. 
Brodie found that two drops of it applied to 
the tongue of a cat, with an interval of fifteen 
minutes, occasioned death." A person may 
accustom himself to the use of any poison, so 
as to take such quantities as would produce 
death in one not so accustomed. It is related 
of De Quincey that he was so accustomed to 
the use of opium, that he would drink an 
ounce of laudanum without apparent injury. 
A very small quantity of nicotine in Tobacco 
will cause sickness, and in some instances has 
caused death ; but continued use makes it 
possible to take larger quantities, till, according 
to Dr. Coles : " Many a man is chewing or 
smoking enough every day to kill outright 
three or four of the stoutest men using it in 
the same way for the first time." "The fact 



12 TOBACCO. 

that it is a powerful article of the Materia 
Medica, and so powerful that the best 
physicians use it only in extreme cases as a 
dernier ressort, and that then in many cases it 
proves fatal, abundantly shows that it never 
ought to be used as a luxury by men in 
health. No man in his sober senses would 
think that, because calomel has been success- 
fully used as a medicine, therefore a person 
might be benefitted by taking it daily when in 
health. Indeed, ninety-nine hundredths of 
those who constantly use Tobacco would not 
risk the consequence of a daily use of opium, 
and yet the habitual use of Tobacco -is instru- 
mental of shortening many more lives, and, 
when fairly introduced into the system, proves 
equally as virulent a poison. The oil of 
Tobacco approaches nearer than any other 
to that most deadly of all poisons, prussic acid. 
"Most persons who have been in the habit of 
using Tobacco can recollect that sometimes, 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 13 

in taking the pipe or quid, they have suddenly 
felt its influence go over the whole system like 
an electric shock; in a moment they have felt 
it to the very ends of their fingers, as if the 
nerves, like the strings of a harp, were vibra- 
ting upon the surface. The sensation would 
not be altogether unpleasant were it not for 
the apprehension, which instantly arises, that 
nature has received a terrible stroke, and that 
some fearful result will be the consequence." 
So manifest are its general effects on the 
system that we should naturally expect men 
would desist from its use. It is not because 
men do not see and experience its evil results, 
that this narcotic is not banished from the land, 
or, at least, put under a faithful apothecary's 
care. Habit is stronger than judgment. The 
pleasures of sense are more powerful than the 
decisions of reason. When we consider the 
nauseating character of the article, and the 
persistency of many to use it, notwithstanding 



14 TOBACCO. 

the dictates of conscience, we are reminded of 
the proverb: " Stolen fruit is sweet," or of the 
remark of a French lady, who, holding a glass 
of water in her hand, exclaimed : " O, if it were 
only wicked to drink this, how nice it would 
be!" 

Such a poison is baneful and injurious gener- 
ally; but, to see more clearly its evil, we may 
consider its influence on different parts of the 
system. 



-+++- 



Bn tha Bigsstitra ®rga»$. 



I. On the mouth. This cavity contains the 
organs of mastication. Whatever affects the 
muscles that open, or close, or move any part 
of it, more or less affects all its organs. Its 
muscles were not designed for constant action. 
If they are exercised more than they were 
designed to be they will be correspondingly 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 15 

weakened. The Tobacco-chewer will weaken 
other parts by drawing on the energy re- 
quired by those parts, and by too constant use 
of the motor muscles will weaken these also. 
This may seem a small item, but, as the ripple 
on the surface of the lake reaches the farther 
shore, so every influence on one part of the 
system reaches to a greater or less extent to 
every other part. 

II. On the teeth. These were made for 
use, not abuse. Using them more than they 
were designed to be used, abuses them. No 
one supposes they were designed for constant 
use, yet the habitual Tobacco-chewer uses them 
most of the time while awake. They require 
to be kept clean, but can one who chews the 
weed keep them clean ? There is a grit in 
Tobacco which injures the enamel, and what- 
ever injures this exposes the vital part. It 
also debilitates the vessels of the gums, causing 
them to recede unnaturally, exposing the roots 



16 TOBACCO. 

of the teeth. One dentist states this to be the 
usual result of Tobacco chewing. It causes 
gum-boils also. Tobacco is said to keep the 
teeth from aching. It may cause one ache to 
cease by removing the excitement to some other 
nerve, or deadening the nerve itself, but it at 
the same time exposes the other nerves to 
ache, which will require an extra dose of this 
odious medicine. The teeth need the vital 
fluids which Tobacco destroys. Smoking also 
injures the teeth by alternate drafts of cold 
and hot air. 

III. The salivary glands. The writer was 
once told by an aged man that he used Tobac- 
co for a watery stomach, to spit off the water 
from the stomach. He did not recognize the 
fact that there was an undue excitement of 
the salivary glands, and that there was a con- 
stant levy on other parts of the system for 
the vital fluids to energize these glands. Now 
God never put more saliva in a man's mouth 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 17 

than nature required to soften the food, or, if 
he did, it would find an exit without this arti- 
ficial means. There is an acrid quality to 
Tobacco which unduly excites these glands, 
and when they have expelled the fluid thus 
called forth, there is left a dryness w^hich 
water will not satisfy, so we see the user of 
Tobacco inclined to the groggery. John Haw- 
kins says, " that in all his travels he never saw 
but one drunkard who did not use Tobacco." 

" It is a fact that drunkards generally used 
Tobacco before they used strong drink. It is 
also a fact that if a drunkard drops his cups 
but does not drop his Tobacco, he will prob- 
ably apostatize." " The dialect of the toper 
in the dram shop is instructive: 'I smoke 
because it makes me love to drink so. I 
drink because it makes me love to smoke so. I 
drink to wet my whistle. I smoke to dry it?" 

IV. The pharynx. This organ is contin- 
uous with the lining membrane of the mouth, 







18 TOBACCO. 

and that which affects one has an immediate 
influence on the other. There are passages 
from it to the nose, and therefore the snuff- 
taker reaches and unduly excites it. 

V. The oesophagus. This organ, by its 
contractile power, carries the food to the stom- 
ach and more or less of the influence of 
Tobacco is felt by it through sympathy with 
the membranes above. 

VI. The stomach. Tobacco is called by 
physicians one of the most powerful emetics. 
This, many persons who are not physicians, 
understand by experience. When first taken 
it causes excessive vomiting; and this results 
not from swallowing the thing itself, but from 
its effluvia. Are you sick enough to take an 
emetic every day ? But you say it does not 
thus affect yon now. Would you think it 
advisable to accustom yourself to any other 
emetic in the same way — lobelia, for instance ? 
Tobacco causes a gnawing sensation in the 



«m 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 19 

stomach, and ulceration of the stomach often 
results from it. The fluids of the system 
being disturbed by this poison, the gastric 
juice does not properly act upon the food, and 
the individual becomes dyspeptic. 

VII. The intestines. The food, as it is 
separated into chyle and chyme, being satura- 
ted with this poison, conveys its poisonous 
influence to every part of the system. It 
may be observed how precarious is the appe- 
tite of the habitual user of the weed. And it 
may also be noticed how lank and lean he is, 
unless, by other means, he has attained an 
unnatural corpulency. This irregular appetite 
does not give regular action to the intestines, 
which results sometimes in one form of disease 
and sometimes in another. 

VIII. The lacteals. These organs take 
up those portions of the food which the 
system needs for its growth, and if their 
operations are interfered with, either directly 



20 TOBACCO. 

or through sympathy with other parts, an 
unhealthy state of growth will result. 

IX. The thoracic duct, which carries the 
elements of the blood to the heart, will also 
be disturbed in its work. 

X. The liver and its associates. These 
organs, operating in two ways, are not only 
disturbed by not having their proper work to 
do in aiding digestion, but also refuse to do 
their work in separating impurities from the 
venous blood. No one can fail to notice the 
dingy, sallow appearance of the man who 
constantly uses this narcotic. In such persons 
the blood is not properly purified. If space 
would allow, a fuller discussion might be given 
to this part of the subject, but it is sufficient 
to state that such men as Dr. Warren, Dr. 
Muzzey and other distinguished physicians, 
give their testimony to the truth of the asser- 
tion, that the whole digestive process is distur- 
bed by the habit of using Tobacco. 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 21 



The circulation of the blood is impeded by 
this worse than fatal narcotic. It is worse 
than fatal, because of its fascination. The 
nutrient portions of the food have been 
traced to the heart through the thoracic duct, 
where begins what is called the circulatory 
process. 

I. The heart. This is the great propelling 
power of the blood and throws out the 
impure blood to be purified, and, receiving it 
back, throws it out again purified to the 
whole system, for its strength and growth. 
Now, if this organ does not have the proper 
materials to work upon, it will itself be 
injured and not do its work thoroughly. In 
some cases the Tobacco-user finds the pulsa- 
tions of the heart slow, feeble and irregular, 
and in other cases rapid and violent. It is 
questionable if the latter is not a reaction 



22 TOBACCO. 

from the former. Dr. Twitchell says : " He 
had found almost every individual, who has 
died during sleep, had long been in the habit 
of the free use of Tobacco, and it was his 
full conviction that that was almost the only 
cause of such deaths." Reader, that quick- 
ened palpitation is a warning. 

The impure material, received from the 
digestive organs in a healthy person, passes 
through the heart to the lungs, where it is 
purified by the air and returned to the other 
side of the heart, from which the propelling 
power of this engine of the human system 
throws it to every part of the body. Now, if 
this organ be out of repair, by working on 
improper materials, it will not expel all the 
impure blood to the lungs ; or, at least, in the 
proper way, and when it receives it back 
purified, if this were possible, it would fail to 
throw this pure blood to the parts needing it. 
Its contractile power would not be strong 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 23 

enough. Here we may see a reaction on the 
digestive organs. No organ of the body is 
more seriously affected by this narcotic than 
the heart. There may be other things that 
cause heart disease, but this is the most 
common and the most potent. Not being 
able to perform its functions in throwing the 
blood to other parts, those parts are affected 
with various diseases. As Dr. Twitchell 
remarks : " This sluggish circulation predis- 
poses to almost every disease to which the 
human system is subject." 

II. The arteries. These channels convey 
the pure blood from the heart. If the heart 
have not proper action, these channels will be 
correspondingly impeded. Here and there 
will lodge impurities which must result in 
evil. 

III. The veins. These channels return the 
blood again to the heart, loaded witli natural 
impurities. We shall subsequently see that 



24 TOBACCO. 

not only he who uses Tobacco, but those who 
are brought into contact with him, are liable 
to have its poison taken up by the veins and 
conveyed to the heart. , 

The system requires pure blood, and if it 
does not receive it, disease must follow, as 
inevitably as famine follows drought. 



Bn t&s ^sp^atortj Bvg&ns. 



These require pure air. If the air we 
breathe contain impurities, they will be in- 
haled and carried into the system. Tobacco 
poisons the air. 

I. The diaphragm and ribs. These are 
the bellows of respiration. The diaphragm 
is depressed and the ribs are elevated, pro- 
ducing a vacuum in the chest, which the air 
rushes in to fill. If the digestive and cir- 
culatory processes are not properly performed, 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 25 

these bellows will not properly work, and 
there will not be sufficient oxygen inhaled 
from the air to purify the blood. 

II. The mouth and nose. In these cavities 
the air receives every noxious vapor they may 
contain. If you have a quid of Tobacco in 
your mouth, the air catches its poisonous 
effluvia and conveys it to the lungs. If you 
smoke, these cavities take up a portion of the 
poisonous element. If you take snuff there 
is a like result. There is also an exciting 
element in Tobacco which inflames the lining 
membranes. Sore mouth and cancerous hu- 
mors result from these inflammations. 

III. The trachea. This is the passage 
for the air towards the lungs, and is very 
liable to be excited by foreign substances. 
Nothing agrees with it so well as pure air. 
When you swallow anything " the wrong 
way "> you well know how it excites this organ 
and cauggs violent coughing. It is also known 



26 TOBACCO. 

how inhaling ammonia excites its membrane. 
This membrane is in some people excited by 
inhaling smoke. Snuff is taken for the pur- 
pose of irritating it. Individuals who work 
where it is found, though they may not use it, 
are liable to contract pulmonary disease, 
through its influence on this organ. 

• IV. The bronchia. These are the branches 
of the trachea, communicating with the lungs, 
and partake of its inflammation, causing . the 
afflictive disease, bronchitis. Most of the 
coughing peculiar to Tobacco-users arises from 
this influence at first. Through the influence 
of Tobacco the lubricating fluid is exhausted, 
and there is a dry cough. This is sometimes 
called a " gin cough," and there is some 
philosophy in the name. This dryness re- 
quires something more than pure, cold water 
to overcome it. 

V. The lungs. These contain little cells, 
which are workshops for purifying the blood. 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 27 

This purification depends upon two circum- 
stances. In the first place, the blood must 
not contain anything upon which the air 
cannot work. If no doctor had ever proved 
that the material given from the heart to the 
lungs, which had been received from the 
stomach, contained any of the poison of 
Tobacco, analogy would indicate it to any one 
conversant with the common affairs of life. 
We know that other things received into the 
stomach have an effect upon the blood. It 
may be purified or vitiated. If you were to 
analyize the blood of a Tobacco-user before it 
goes to the lungs, you would find nicotine in 
it. Analogy, to say nothing of facts, indi- 
cating this, the question may arise : " Will 
not the air purify it of this poison ? " The 
following is the process of purification in a 
healthy person : The blood owes its normal 
impurity to the presence of carbonic acid. 
The atmosphere is composed of twenty-one 



28 TOBACCO. 

parts of oxj^gen and about seventy-nine parts 
of nitrogen. Water will mix more readily 
with some other things than with oil, simply 
because it has a greater affinity for them. 
On the same principle the oxygen of the air 
has a greater affinity for some elements of 
this dark colored blood than for nitrogen, and 
so leaves the latter and unites with the 
former. On the other hand, the carbonic 
acid has a greater affinity for the air than the 
blood, and so leaves the latter and unites with 
the air, the same as a toper would leave a 
church and go to a saloon, because he has a 
greater affinity for the latter. The oxygen, 
taken up by the blood, changes its color and 
it is then returned to the heart. The remain- 
ing portions of air, vitiated with carbonic 
acid, are expelled from the lungs and may be 
seen in a cold morning in the form of vapor. 
Things that are taken into the stomach to 
affect the blood do not pass into the air. So 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 29 

nicotine, as any other poison, instead of going 
with the carbonic acid into the air, is returned 
to the heart, to be thrown out to vitiate the 
system. 

The other circumstance essential to a proper 
purification is, that the air inhaled be pure. 
There are many things that corrupt the air. 
Some of them cannot be avoided. Conta- 
gious diseases are taken in this way. The air 
of the Tobacco-room is vitiated, and its 
poison is taken into the lungs of those found 
there, and its deadly influence enters into the 
circulation. It is true you may smell the 
breath of the Tobacco-user, which may seem 
to indicate that he breathes off this poison, 
but if what he breathes himself, and he is the 
nearest to it, affect him half as sensibly as it 
does him who stands by, it would convince many 
a martyr to public convenience that enough 
is imbibed to seriously injure him. You may 
also smell the breath of those who have eaten 



30 TOBACCO. 

various articles of food, or taken certain kinds 
of medicine. Does, therefore, the food or 
medicine have no influence on the system ? 

Not only in the circulation is the influence 
felt, but the lungs themselves become diseased 
by particles of the narcotic lodging in the 
cells, producing irritation and disease. This 
must be especially the case with the snuff- 
taker. 

Perhaps you may have further observed 
that the Tobacco-chewer, and especially the 
smoker, has a short breath. It is sometimes 
amusing to see persons afflicted with asthma 
or phthisic resort to the pipe as though that 
were their only safety. Wheeze and smoke, 
wheeze and smoke, like an engine out of re- 
pair ! Long and full respirations of heaven's 
pure air would do much more good. They 
say smoking relieves them. No doubt of it, 
yet each succeeding dose only creates a 
demand for more. Diseases of the respira- 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 31 

tory organs cannot be removed by this vitia- 
ting poison. 

Better sing than smoke, for that is a normal 
action for which the lungs were made, but 
God never designed them for breathing pois- 
onous gases. 



-*-♦-♦- 



©# tfre SeoitB-targ: ©£ga»s. 



The term secretion may be understood as 
embracing absorption. There are various little 
vessels in every part of the body whose work 
is to deposit the elements of the system in 
their proper places. The organs before men- 
tioned are the machines of the mill ; these are 
the packers, and errand boys, and distributors. 

I. The capillaries. These are put down 
by some as circulatory organs because they 
form the communication between the arteries 
and veins. They secrete the nutrient portions 



32 TOBACCO. 

of the blood and apply them to the parts 
to which they are adapted. Their action must 
be seriously interrupted if the blood contain 
anything unnatural, as must be the case with 
the user of Tobacco. 

II. Other secretives. There are also ex- 
halants, and follicles, and glands, each having 
its specific function. They are all influenced 
unfavorably by any foreign element in the 
fluids from which they secrete. 

III. Absorptives. Fluids and solids not 
needed by the system are removed by means 
of the lymphatic vessels, but if these become 
diseased by poisons they cease to be active. 
Lymphatics on the surface take up external 
substances also. " It has been found that the 
hand immersed to the wrist in warm water 
will absorb from ninety to a hundred grains 
of fluid in the space of an hour." A person 
immersed in Tobacco smoke would be likely 
to absorb its elements and convey them into 



_ 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 33 

the body. It may be said that these vessels 
would carry away all the influences of Tobac- 
co, but facts prove to the contrary. A man 
accustomed to its use is saturated with it. 
That Tobacco poison may be taken up by the 
absorbents of the skin is shown by the experi- 
ments of Fontana: "I made" says he "a small 
incision in a pigeon's leg and applied to it the 
oil of Tobacco. In two minutes it lost the 
use of its foot. I repeated the experiment on 
another pigeon and the event was exactly the 
same. I introduced into the pectoral muscles 
of a pigeon a small bit of wool covered with 
this oil. The pigeon in a few seconds fell 
insensible. Two others to whose muscles I 
applied the oil vomited several times." Dr. 
Bigelow says : " I knew a woman who applied 
to the heads of three of her children afflicted 
with the ' scald head' an ointment composed 
of snuff and butter ; but what was her sur- 
prise to find them immediately seized with 



34 TOBACCO. 

vertigo, violent vomiting, fainting and con- 
vulsions." This poison may be given off and 
taken up by another like any contagion. Dr. 
Coles says: "Put a victim of this habit into a 
hot bath ; let full and free perspiration arise ; 
then drop a fly into that water and it dies at 
the instant of contact." Cannibals will not eat 
flesh which contains the flavor of Tobacco. 
Even the turkey-buzzards of Mexico refused 
the flesh of soldiers addicted to this indulgence. 
"These Tobacco essences are constantly 
being given off by insensible perspiration. 
This is so abundant as sometimes seriouslv to 
affect the health of a bed-companion. The 
poor wife has in some cases visibly suffered by 
sleeping with a living keg of Tobacco juiceP 
This poison is also inherited by offspring, as 
many facts might show. Cancers on the lips 
may result from it. They generally occur on 
the side where the Tobacco is held. These all 
result from absorption. 



«_ 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 35 

Qu ths Husxrola* System. 



The muscles derive their vigor from the 
blood. Their strength depends upon judicious 
exercise. Unless they be recuperated by the 
addition of proper materials, they become in- 
firm and weak. The same result may be 
found on the voluntary and involuntary mus- 
cles, and even upon the bones, joints, sinews 
and cartilages. There is no nutritive principle 
in Tobacco to supply strength to any of these. 
A man might better eat saw-dust to make him 
strong. The muscles of the Tobacco-user are 
generally flaccid and infirm. They may gain 
in volume but they lose in firmness and 
strength. 



♦ ♦♦ 



®u tbe Bertrams %stsm* 



The nerves are the strings on which life 



36 TOBACCO. 

hangs. Whatever injures these makes life 
uncertain. These strings of life center in the 
brain, where one of the first effects of Tobac- 
co is experienced. Its peculiar exhilarating 
influence is first found in the nervous system. 
No one will deny that Tobacco is a narcotic. 
" When enough of it is taken at once to 
destroy life, its nicotine kills the electro-vital 
fluid circulating in the nerves. Various exper- 
iments on dumb animals exhibit its shocking 
power to agonize and kill." The nerves of 
the heart, stomach and lungs are sensibly 
affected by it. The nerves becoming paral- 
yzed, will not perform their work. Said one 
of our ex-presidents: "Tobacco unnerves me 
at times and leaves me in a state of extreme 
lassitude, and nothing serves to raise me so 
well as whiskey or brandy." "Mr. Colfax, it 
will be remembered, narrowly escaped death, 
as he afterward believed, from this cause, at 
the time of his sudden prostration in the 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 37 

Senate Chamber, and smoked no more. There 
are thousands of inveterate smokers who are 
daily inviting this peril. Will they accept 
admonition and desist in time?" 

There are several diseases of the nerves 
resulting directly from the use of this danger- 
ous drug. 

I. Neuralgia. This disease, as others, is 
experienced by some who do not use Tobacco, 
but that it is produced by this narcotic is attes- 
ted by credible physicians. "Dr. E. Johnson 
of England mentions an inveterate case of 
neuralgia in the heel caused by chewing Tobac- 
co. Dr. Wood, of Philadelphia, enumerates 
Tobacco also as among the causes of this dis- 
tressing disease." 

II. Tremors. Smokers are especially liable 
to this affection. 

III. Epilepsy. This is a disease of the 
brain. Dr. Muzzey states this disease to be 
sometimes the result of Tobacco, and why 



38 TOBACCO. 

should it not be if it be such a destroyer of 
nervous energy ? 

IY. Apoplexy. This disease suddenly takes 
away all power of sensation or motion. Dr. 
Cheyne says: "I am convinced that apoplexy 
is one of the evils in the train of the disgus- 
ting habit of snuffing." 

Y. Palsy or paralysis. Mr. Trask says: 
"We have known three cases of palsy caused di- 
rectly by the use of Tobacco." He also relates 
the following: "Doctor," we said to a splendid 
specimen of the profession, " tell us something 
about the baneful effects of Tobacco." 

"Its effects, sir," said the doctor, "its effects 
are evil, only evil, and that continually. It is 
a mystery that gentlemen of my profession 
care so little, do and know so little about a 
poison that is doing mischief at so terrible a 
rate. Sir," the doctor continued, "I was on 
a council of physicians the other day on the 
border of this town ; the patient was a young 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 39 

man prostrate by paralysis; he was deprived 
of the use of his lower limbs from the abdo- 
men to his toes ; we overhauled him ; we with- 
drew and talked about antecedents and prob- 
able causes for- a long time, and came to no 
satisfactory conclusions. Dissatisfied and im- 
patient, I said to his attending physician: 
' Does the poor fellow use Tobacco ? ' l Oh 
no, he replied 'I guess not,' and with an air 
of nonchalance added 'What if he does? 
What can that have to do with his case ? ' ' I 
did not ask you,' I replied ; ' about the effects 
of Tobacco, but simply if the patient used it/ 
Gruffly he said : ' Go and see.' Stepping to 
his bedside, I said: 'My young friend, do you 
use Tobacco ? ' With a squealing voice more 
cat-like than human, he said : ' I use a little.' 
'How do you use it?' 'I smoke a little.' 
' Did you smoke this morning ? ' ' Yes, a 
little.' 'Did you smoke at noon?' 'Yes, a 
little.' Before I quit him I ascertained that 



40 TOBACCO. 

he had actually consumed sixteen cigars a day 
and the poor fellow's soul was so obfusticated 
by smoke that he considered that prodigious 
amount but little." 

"This," continued the doctor, "may seem 
strange, but the strangest of all is the fact, 
that his attending physician — regular and 
well-bred — did not know in the first place that 
his patient used Tobacco ; and, secondly, that 
he did not know that a rank and deadly poison 
could have had anything to do with his case ! 
We are accused of killing our patients with 
calomel! A thousand are killed by Tobacco 
where one is killed by calomel ! " 

VI. Delirium Tremens. Not unfrequently 
this terrible disease results from Tobacco. This 
is attested by physicians also. As most drunk- 
ards use this article it is possible that some 
cases of this disease may have been caused 
primarily by it rather than by alcohol. 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 41 

THE WORTHY PATRIARCH IN DELIRIUM TREMENS. 



A mechanic in one of our manufacturing 
cities, who had risen to distinction in a Tem- 
perance Lodge, was subject to delirium tre- 
mens by the use of Tobacco. The develop- 
ments, one and all, of this dreadful disease, 
were manifest in his case. His night slum- 
bers were often much disturbed. Sometimes 
his entire family would be summoned to his 
bedside, at dead of night, to witness his agon- 
ies, and, as they often supposed, to see him 
die ! He had horrible writhings — strange vis- 
ions — and objects of a hideous nature, well- 
nigh of every form and hue, harrowed up his 
soul, and wrought upon his imagination. 
On the recurrence of one of these painful par- 
oxysms, his wife sent for a doctor — a doctor 
of a keen eye, who happily was not himself a 
victim to this stupefying, deranging narcotic. 
As the doctor fixed his eye on the eye of the 



42 TOBACCO. 

maniac, the following passed between them: 
"Do you use strong drinks?" "No," said 
the maniac. " Do you belong to the Sods of 
Temperance?" "Yes," was the reply. "I 
supposed you did," said the doctor ; " you use 
Tobacco. This is a Tobacco fit — this is deli- 
rium tremens. You may die in the next one. 
Drop Tobacco, or Tobacco will drop you." 
The former Worthy Patriarch dropped To- 
bacco, and has not had delirium tremens since. 
8 — Fitchburg Tract Depository. 



The nerves are tender strings, and extend- 
ing as they do to all parts of the body, and 
operated so readily as the strings of a viol, it 
becomes essential to the beauty of the tune, 
that they be properly strung. Sometimes To- 
bacco loosens them and makes the tone too 
flat; sometimes it tightens them and makes 
the tone too sharp. Be careful of the nervous 
system. 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 43 



The senses are dependent for their acute- 
ness on the nervous power and the activity of 
the brain. If the brain be deadened by the 
use of this narcotic, it will not so vividly ap- 
prehend the objects that come within range of 
the senses. If the nerves, which are the tele- 
graphic wires to convey impressions from the 
sensuous organs to the brain, are narcotized, 
they will not act as readily. The impressions- 
will be slight, or inaccurate, because the 
vibrations are improper. 

The effects are direct as well as indirect 
The organs will themselves become diseased, 
either for want of proper materials to supply 
the waste of the parts, or, still more directly, 
by the immediate action of the pipe, quid or 
snuff. 

I. Hearing. Almost every one Knows that 
when we are troubled with what is familiarly 



44 TOBACCO. 

called "a cold in the head" there is an oppres- 
sion connected with the ear, or " a ringing in 
the ear." In such a cold there is an excite- 
ment of the mucous membrane, and the influ- 
ence is extended to the membrane of the ear, 
and pain, or closeness, is experienced. Now- 
smoking, and snuffing, and probably chewing 
to some extent, excite this same mucous mem- 
brane. Have you seen a smoker blow smoke 
from his nose ? The cavities of the head are 
all more or less connected, and what excites 
the membrane of one will excite to some 
extent, the membrane of all. Thus we have 
good reason for believing that the use of 
Tobacco may impair the organ of hearing. 
Most persons might have paralysis and die 
before deafness would arise from this influ- 
ence, but, if the auditory nerve be naturally 
feeble in its action, deafness would undoubt- 
edly be hastened by the use of this narcotic. 
II. Seeing. The organ of vision is very 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 45 

tender, so much so that "the apple of the 
eye" is taken as a figure to represent the 
object of most earnest solicitude. Any one 
knows how smoke will cause the eye to smart. 
The Tobacco-smoker may say he hardens the 
eye to smoke. So one may get used to a smoke- 
house, but would it be considered healthy to live 
in such a place ? Tobacco smoke not only 
irritates, but infuses poison to the injury of 
the nerve and muscles of the eye. When am- 
monia is taken into the nose it causes the tears 
to flow; so snuff causes the eyes to water. 

There are canals called lachrymal ducts, 
extending from the eyes to the cavities of 
the nose, with which the snuff comes in 
contact. Sooner or later the unnatural irri- 
tation thus caused will injure the nerve of 
vision. 

III. Smelling. The olfactory nerves are 
numerous and begin on the lining membrane 
of the nose. "Acuteness of smell requires 



46 TOBACCO. 

that the brain and nerve of smell be healthy, 
and that the membrane that lines the nose be 
thin and moist. Snuff, when introduced into 
the nose, not only diminishes the sensibility of 
the nervous filaments, but thickens the lining 
membrane. This thickening of the membrane 
obstructs the passage of air through the nos- 
trils, and thus obliges ' snuff -takers ' to open 
their mouths when they breathe." Snuff, and 
many other articles used for catarrh, produce 
more disease than they remove. The excite- 
ment and poison of Tobacco must injure this 
sense. 

IV. Taste. The tongue is the main organ 
of taste, though the cheeks may aid. On the 
surface of the tongue are little papillae, which are 
the origin of the " gustatory nerves." Those who 
vitiate these have less relish for ordinary food. 
Till one becomes accustomed to it, the taste of 
Tobacco is not agreeable. Then things, which 
have a less powerful flavor, taste insipid. Be- 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 47 

coming deadened by this poison, the nerves 
act with less energy, and, consequently, the 
Tobacco devotee requires more stimulating 
and highly flavored food — and dri?ik. 

V. Touch, or feeling. This is a general 
sense, embracing every nerve of the system, 
and, as Tobacco impaires the nerves, it affects 
this general sense. It does the very tips of 
the fingers no good. 



+*^ 



Bn th$ ^TxxiDS* 



The vocal organs are as delicate as any 
part of the system, and, therefore, as liable to 
injury. Though the mouth with its appenda- 
ges aids in intonation, yet the larynx is the 
main organ of speech. On account of its 
position, it is peculiarly liable to injury from 
the use of Tobacco. It is situated where the 
two channels of snuff and Tobacco unite, viz.: 



48 TOBACCO. 

at the base of the nasal passages. The habit 
of using Tobacco is formed at the most critical 
period, that is, when the voice " is changing,'' 
and the vocal cords are therefore more liable 
to injury. 

Dr. Allen, of Maine, says : " That Tobacco 
is injurious to the voice, any one can testify 
who has heard the harsh, thick, husky, mum- 
bling voice of the inveterate Tobacco chewer." 

Dr. H. Green, of New York, says : " Of 
the great number of cases of throat-ail that 
had come under his observation, a large pro- 
portion had taken place in individuals who 
used Tobacco." He had reference to what is 
called "clergyman's sore-throat." 

An instrument like the human voice, capa- 
ble of producing many thousand tones, may be 
easily impaired, and should be carefully guar- 
ded. Tobacco must have an injurious effect 
upon the voice. 

I have dwelt thus long on the physical effects 



ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS. 49 

of the weed because, when these are shown, it 
is much easier to show its other effects. If 
other poisons were as insidious, as deceptive, 
as fascinating, and as fashionable, it might be 
desirable to show their effects. It may be 
said that the case has been too strongly stated. 
Not when we consider that men need to have 
their eyes open to the evils of the narcotic. 
" A college of physicians has said that not less 
than twenty thousand in our land annually die 
by the use of this poison." Dr. Shaw names 
some eighty diseases which may be attributed 
to Tobacco. Your life and your health are 
endangered by the use of this weed. It 
becomes us to be cautious how we trifle with 
nature, for the purpose of gratifying an unnat- 
ural appetite for which we are indebted, not 
to nature, but to ourselves. 




'4° - 




TOBACCO : 



ITS MENTAL EFFECTS. 




II. 



The mind is intimately connected with the 
body, and so close is this intimacy, that what- 
ever disturbs one, to a greater or less extent 
disturbs the other. Even continued pain in 
any part of the body may bring the mind to 
premature weakness. There are many grave 
questions concerning the nature of the mind, 
Mental philosophy cannot be understood, as 
physical philosophy can, by visual examina- 
tion. No microscopic power can decide its 
character. We know it only by its develop- 
ments. The common view is that beasts have 



54 TOBACCO. 

simply an instinct connected with their physi- 
cal organism, while man has a mind which 
distinguishes him from the brute creation. It 
is not proposed to discuss this question. It 
may require some higher characteristic than 
simply mental organism to constitute the 
difference between man and beast. Suffice 
it to say that man has a mental organism 
with which are connected noble faculties. 
There can be but little question that the mind 
is connected with the brain. The manner of 
this connection is not fully determined. The 
conformations of the brain may indicate cer- 
tain qualities of mind, yet the exceptions are 
so many that the prudence of forming any 
general rule is extremely doubtful. When 
the nerves centering in the brain become 
injured, or in any measure paralyzed, by the 
use of narcotics, they convey lighter impres- 
sions to the brain, and the latter, depending 
in some measure for its activity upon the 



ITS MENTAL EFFECTS. 55 

vitality and vigor of the nerves, becomes 
correspondingly weakened in its action. Upon 
its action depends, in some way, the activity 
of the mind. If it has become unduly stim- 
ulated by Tobacco, or other poisons, the 
mind will be unduly excited, and the muscles 
of the face will reveal this excitement. If 
the brain has become deadened — which is the 
final result of Tobacco — the mind will be cor- 
respondingly deadened, and there will be a 
lifeless expression in the face corresponding 
to it. You may have seen the Tobacco-user, 
after a period of self-denial, take his pipe or 
quid. How the face lights up with a gleam 
of satisfaction ! On the other hand, you may 
have seen on the face of the constant user of 
the weed certain rigid, expressionless features, 
that indicate an inactive mind. The mind, 
however, of such a person, is not uniform in 
its action. If anything oppose it, it becomes 
irritable, like the mind of one who has been 



56 TOBACCO. 

sick for a long time. The results of nervous 
derangement on the mind cannot be easily cal- 
culated, but, considering their intimate rela- 
tions, they must be great. I have thus indicated 
in a general manner, the results of Tobacco 
on the mind ; but I wish to be more specific on 
this point, for it is desirable we should know 
and avoid every injury to the mind. 

It intoxicates the mind. Intoxication is 
generally considered to be connected with the 
senses. It is manifest in the senses, but it is a 
mistake to suppose that it goes no further. It 
is connected with the brain, and so with the 
mind. The mind, being disarranged by it, is 
not capable of receiving proper impressions. 
Thus an intoxicated man, when he falls, thinks 
the ground rises up to meet him. Tobacco 
has, to some extent, this intoxicating power, 
though not immediately, nor to so great an 
extent as alcohol. Its action is more constant. 
The continual toper never gets drunk; so the 



ITS MENTAL EFFECTS. 57 

continual Tobacco-user does not consider him- 
self intoxicated, but he is in a state akin to it 
constantly. Glance at a bar-room after din- 
ner, and those sons of smoke, those dreamy, 
boozy devotees will give some idea of mind 
essentially intoxicated. Many a boy, on first 
beginning to use the weed, has experienced its 
intoxicating influences, even to the very tips 
of his fingers. Its exhilarations are undue and 
unnatural, uncalled for and injurious. 

It Irritates the Mind. Anything that 
puts the mind out of its natural state tends to 
irritate it, either directly or by reaction. It is 
more difficult to acclimate the mind to a foreign 
element than the body to a foreign climate. 
Put a bird in the water, or a fish in the air, 
and neither will live. Feed a man on hay, or 
a horse on meat, and neither will thrive. If 
you have never noticed it, it might be interesting 
to do so, that those who use Tobacco are either 
dumpish or irritable. The natural condition of 



58 TOBACCO. 

the mind is that which makes it open to con- 
viction of physical and moral truths ; but the 
excited Tobacco-chewer, instead of arguments, 
will sputter words and Tobacco-juice at the 
same time ; and he who argues with such an 
one should be cautious not to get his garments 
nor his good name soiled. This irritation is 
never so manifest as when the individual is 
deprived of his pipe, quid or snuff. " A mer- 
chant in a certain city, deprived of his Tobacco 
for a single day, became infuriated to madness 
and inflicted kicks on his wife and children 
without mercy." u The mind of its victim is 
often in the condition of a steam engine 
moving at the rate of fifty or a hundred miles 
an hour ; and then in the condition of the same 
engine with a collapsed boiler smashed up by 
the wayside. Or his mind is like the race- 
horse, all foaming upon the spring on the race 
ground ; or like that noble animal half dead 
from exhaustion, prostrate in his stall." " To- 



ITS MENTAL EFFECTS. 59 

bacco drives to excessive action, hence exhaus- 
tion and debility are the legitimate conse- 
quences, and, wherever you go, you may see 
these over-driven animals half dead on beds 
and sofas — half dead in hotels and saloons." 
It Debilitates the Mental Powers. As 
has been already suggested, a lassitude follows 
the intoxicating influence of Tobacco. This is 
reaction, but it is the reaction of the man subject 
to fits : they greatly weaken and debilitate him. 
The mental, like all other powers, are debili- 
tated by over-exertion, and languor follows. 
Undue or unnatural exertion of the muscles 
weakens them; so of the nerves, so of the 
mind. The mind, by proper exercise, has the 
power of consecutive thought, but the Tobacco- 
user loses this power, and his thoughts jump 
from one thing to another — they cannot be 
gathered and concentrated. Such men are not 
generally found among the deep thinkers. 
For this same reason we find many a poor 



60 TOBACCO. 

memory. " The minds of smokers are some- 
times completely oblivious." It weakens de- 
cision, or the will power. " It completely 
enslaves the mind." Said a young minister, 
aiming to break his chains : " I need Tobacco 
to give me resolution to give up Tobacco." 
It impairs the power of self-possession. Am- 
bition, to a certain extent, is desirable and 
commendable, but this habit tends to crush a 
lofty ambition, and the mind, once aspiring, 
becomes satisfied with penury, beggary and 
degradation. The man is willing to sacrifice 
all high and noble purposes, to bow down to 
this god of appetite and bring his oblation to 
its altars. 

It further degrades by arousing the passions. 
It tends to inebriation and lust of every kind. 
Saloons for drinking and gambling are satu- 
rated — the walls with smoke, the floors with 
spittle. Such places have nothing connected 
with them that tends to improve the mind. 



ITS MENTAL EFFECTS. 61 

" If ever a philosopher came from them he was 
not made but unmade there." 

It Weakens the Reasoning Powers. It 
becomes every one to keep these powers 
unimpaired and to improve them so far as they 
are capable of improvement. The man who 
uses Tobacco dethrones his judgment and 
undermines those principles upon which reason 
rests. In order to its full play, this faculty 
demands concentrated and continuous thought. 
Its province is to draw conclusions from 
premises. If the premises be smoky, the con- 
clusion will be so too. One has quaintly 
asked : " How much keener is your logic- 
chopper by being bathed in Tobacco-juice ?" 

It is a Cause of Insanity. Insanity is one 
of the worst calamities that afflict the human 
race. Anything that will make a man deliri- 
ous, when taken in quantities to produce that 
result, will, though taken in smaller quantities, 
sooner or later so dethrone reason as to produce 



62 TOBACCO. 

insanity. In one of the reports of the Hospital 
for the Insane at Worcester, Mass., when 
speaking of Tobacco as one of the causes of 
insanity, Dr. Woodward quotes the opinions 
of a large number of the most eminent phy- 
sicians Vho pronounce the same opinion. " An 
instance is also given by one writer on this 
subject of a young man who became a raving 
maniac through the use of snuff." This is not 
an isolated case. Rev. Mr. Trask relates the 
case of James Dixey who was a maniac through 
the influence of Tobacco. " Those who in- 
dulge in its use, indeed, sometimes pretend 
that Tobacco does not injure the brain ; but 
this must be in the sense of the anecdote told 
of an old lady who asked her physician if snuff 
ever injured folks' brains ? " Oh no, madam," 
said he, " for folks who have any brains don't 
take it." Thus Tobacco injures the mind. 
There is no good use for it except to kill 
vermin. 




TOBACCO : 



ITS MORAL EFFECTS. 




Ill 



Thus far I have considered Tobacco in its 
direct or material influences, but there is an 
immaterial or moral aspect of the question 
which claims our attention. 

As physiologists and metaphysicians cannot 
describe the mind, much less are moralists able 
to describe the soul ; yet every man's con- 
sciousness or spiritual intuitions convince him 
that he has a moral nature. While philoso- 
phers tell us that the reasoning powers, or 
mind, constitute the difference between man 
and beast, our own natures seem to speak 



66 TOBACCO. 

forth a greater distinction — that man has an 

immortal part. 

A soul within us lives, 
A soul that never dies, 
Which to our nature gives 
All holy, heavenly ties. 

'Tis this that makes us meD, 
Distinguished from the beasts ; 
'Tis this that moves us when 
We hope for heavenly feasts. 

The soul is the accountable part of man. 
This is that which shall stand before the Judge 
at the last day to give account of the deeds 
which it did while here in the body. The 
mind of man is intimately connected with the 
soul — perhaps more closely than with the 
body. The mind is the instrument of the soul. 
Many grave questions arise concerning this 
thought which we cannot here discuss. Cer- 
tain it is that all the manifestations we can 
make to each other of this part of our nature 
are made through the mind by means of 



ITS MORAL EFFECTS. 67 

physical organism. The soul, in its normal 
condition, in its primitive state, in its prime- 
val purity, could never degrade mind or body ; 
but, since it has fallen from this condition, it 
seems " to seek out many inventions " by the 
use of which it may degrade the instruments 
with which the Master has endowed it. Giving 
itself up to its own servants, it has by them 
been degraded to servitude. As though the 
overseer of a company of men were controlled 
by their will rather than by his own. 

Now this soul-power which God has given 
us, and which is ourselves, cannot accomplish 
what its Author designed unless it properly use 
the instruments with which it has been fur- 
nished. If it use them for any other purpose 
than that for which they were designed, it 
becomes guilty. 

This thought may be thus illustrated : A 
man owns several farms, on each of which he 
employs a number of men. Over each set of 



68 TOBACCO* 

men he places an overseer. If any of these 
overseers should abuse the men and so injure 
them by his cruelty, or by feeding them an 
improper food, as that they could not perform 
the duties assigned them, would he be accom- 
plishing the design of the owner ? The answer 
must be negative 

Again, if he should despatch the men to do 
work not connected with the owner's interest, 
would the work of the farm be accomplished ? 
Most likely it would not. 

Again, would not such a course act unfavor- 
ably to the overseer himself ? Would he be 
esteemed by the owner as a good overseer ? 
No, is the only answer. The owner would be 
very likely to condemn and to discharge him. 

No complete analogy can be made between 
temporal and spiritual things, yet the soul 
stands in about the same relation to Grod as 
the overseer to the owner, and in the same 
relation to the mind and body as the overseer 



^ 



ITS MORAL EFFECTS, 69 

to the workmen. God has a work to be done, 
and it is of such a nature that the overseers 
cannot do it themselves, so the soul is to ope- 
rate through mind and body. It is by means 
of these that man influences man. The soul 
throws the light from the eye and the radiance 
through the speaking countenance. 

Now, if the soul abuse the physical powers 
by giving them for food that which is not 
adapted to their wants, they cannot perform the 
duties assigned to them. Or, if these workmen 
be used for other purposes than the work 
assigned them, such work will not be accom- 
plished. Who will be to blame ? The soul — 
the accountable man. There will also be a 
reflex influence on the soul itself. It will be 
degraded. 

But there is another result which our illus- 
tration does not present. The soul is influenced 
directly by the state of the body and mind. 
If the mind be stultified by the use of narcotics, 



70 TOBACCO. 

the soul will be proportionally diminished in 
power. If the physical powers be diminished 
by that which is injurious, there will be less 
activity of the moral nature. Facts prove that 
Tobacco diminishes the morality of men. 
" Drunkards consider Tobacco-users on a par 
with themselves. ' We all have our failings, 
don't we V said a staggering inebriate to a 
Methodist preacher, as he was buying and 
using some of 'Mrs. Miller's Fine Cut. 5 To- 
bacco is almost invariably sold at dram-shops." 
Investigations in prisons, and houses of correc- 
tion, and State reform schools, show that a vast 
majority of their inmates used Tobacco before 
they committed crime. It is also a fact that 
liquor saloons, and gambling saloons, and the 
dens of vice, of which there are unfortunately 
so many in the land, are places above all others 
where Tobacco is found. The use of this 
article is very intimately associated with in- 
temperance, Sabbath-breaking and other vices. 



ITS MORAL EFFECTS. 71 

One writer says ; " In traveling through the 
principal cities and town in the States, this 
truth has stared me in the face : Just in pro- 
portion as physical sins abound, moral obliqui- 
ties follow; just in proportion as ungodliness 
of oral appetite prevails, obscenity, vulgarity 
and profanity abound ; the more Tobacco and 
liquor, the more gambling, licentiousness and 
crime." 

This habit also interferes seriously with 
religious life. With some it is a mighty idol 
standing between their souls and their Creator. 
Some who read these words have felt this 
habit to be a hindrance to religious life and 
enjoyment. Said a young convert : " I will 
drop Tobacco if it takes the flesh from my 
bones." He conquered and went on his way 
rejoicing. A lady in Connecticut says : " We 
have enjoyed a precious revival of religion, 
which embraced a large group of young men ; 
some run well, others have apostatized and 



72 TOBACCO. 

dishonored Christ, but every backslider, with- 
out exception, is a victim of Tobacco in some 
form." Says a college officer : " When anx- 
ious for salvation, my cigars stood in my way 
and delayed my submission to God ; my cigars 
were the last idol I surrendered." There were 
two young men both desirous of " growing up 
into Christ, their living head in all things." 
They both used Tobacco, and were both con- 
vinced that it was a hindrance to obtaining 
their object. One gave up the weed and 
gained his object; the other did not give up 
the weed and did not gain his object. Many 
have gone into their closets and made it a 
subject of prayer, and invariably have come 
out convinced that it was a duty to give up the 
habit. In view of its evil " the Sandwich 
Island Christians refuse church-membership to 
those who use rum or Tobacco habitually." 
Billy Orr was an ignorant and quaint English 
preacher. " For two or three years after his 



ITS MORAL EFFECTS. 73 

conversion he continued to use Tobacco, and 
was rather a hard smoker ; but one of the 
circuit preachers having rallied him on the 
subject, he began to consider the question of 
to smoke or not to smoke. He was not long 
in arriving at the conclusion that the use of 
Tobacco was a bad habit. Then he went to a 
physician and asked what effect a discontinu- 
ance of the weed would be likely to produce 
in his case, and was advised not to leave off 
smoking, or, if he did, to do so gradually. 
The sequel must be told in his own words. 

"He came one afternoon to the house of a 
widow lady, with a more grave and thoughtful 
face than usual, and his first words were, 
< Well, Sister W\, I've done it. 5 

" ' Done what, Mr. Orr V was the response. 

" ' I've stopped aff the Tobaccy,' he said. ' I 
was ridin' along this mornin', smokin' me 
pipe, an' the ould divil he says to me, Ye're 
a slave, Billy Orr, an' all yer religion won't 



74 TOBACCO. 

save ye. Ye quit the whiskey, but ye can't 
drap the Tobaccy.' 

" ' Who says I can't ? says I ' 

" ' It'll harm ye if ye quit, an' may be it 'ud 
kill ye, says he ; an' jist that minit I saw that 
he was laughin' at me, bekase he thought that 
he had me, an' that I bid to do what he liked for 
fear if I didn't it 'ud be the death o' me. So I 
lifted me heart to the Lord, and then I says, 
Satan, I'll lave the Tobaccy, an' if the Al- 
mighty wants me to live He'll keep me from 
harm ; if He don't it's all the same to you any 
way, but He'll take care o' me — I'm not 
afeard.' 

" ' Thin I thought with meself what the 
docther said, an' I determined to smoke out 
what was in my 'baccy-box, but in half a minit 
I thought again, an' says I, If I'm goin' to 
trust the Lord, I'll do it out an' out, an' no 
half way; so I pulled the 'baccy-box out o' me 
pocket an' heaved it over the fence into a field. 



ITS MORAL EFFECTS. 75 

Thin the old fellow says, Finish yer pipe at 
any rate ; an' with that I whips out me pipe 
an' throws it afther the 'baccy-box.' 

" ' There now, oulcl boy, says I, in the name 
o' the Almighty, that's done with, an' I don't 
believe I'll ever be worse, or long afther the 
flesh-pots of Egypt ayther.' 

" He was right ; his health did not suffer, 
neither did he have any hankering after the 
discarded indulgence." 

To degrade yourself in body or mind is a 
sin. It is, therefore, easy to see the moral 
evil of this habit. 




- * 









TOBACCO : 

ITS SOCIAL EFFECTS. 





Cl 




IV. 



The immorality of this habit will be more 
clearly seen as we consider its social effects. 
Whatever poisons communities, or in any way 
injures our fellow men, is a sin. 

We occupy certain relations to those around 
us, called social relations. Society is made up 
of these relations. Any vitiation of one part 
is an injury to every part, so that, in a sense, 
we are " our brother's keeper." 

1st. Its uncleanliness. If any one can 
see the uncleanliness of this vile habit with- 



80 TOBACCO. 

out considering it a vitiation of society, lie 
must have the credit, if credit it be, of being 
blind to the rules of decency, and unconscious 
of the keen senses that inhabit other men. 
To go into a store or depot, a railroad car or a 
church, and see the filth produced by this 
habit, is enough to make a well person sick. 
It is said there was a valley outside of Jerusa- 
lem into which dead animals and other filth 
of the city were carried. It was called 
Gehenna. Such is the supposed necessity of 
the railway train— the smoking-car. It is 
the Gehenna of the railway train. Here, as 
in some other places, are puddles of Tobacco 
juice, in which the garments of inoffensive 
men and women may be draggled, or by which 
some unfortunate one may be thrown to the 
floor and injured ; quids of Tobacco, nausea- 
ting and disgusting; or, it may be, the matron 
of a house defiling not only her own gar- 
ments and brains, but the food of which 



ITS SOCIAL EFFECTS. 81 

others are to partake. Surely these are no 
slight evils to society. 

2d. Its dis agree ableness. This is also an 
injury to good society. The fumes of Tobacco- 
smoke, choking and strangling to some; the 
effluvia, nauseating to others; the poison, 
taken up into the systems of all, to a greater 
or less extent poisoning the very life-blood, are 
no benefit, but a great evil to society. Gov. 
Morris was asked by a smoking divine if gen- 
tlemen smoked in France. He replied, 
" Gentlemen, sir ! gentlemen smoke nowhere." 
In a depot a young man, well dressed, smoking 
a cigar, thought the depot agent very ungen- 
tlemanly because the latter referred him to 
the sign on the wall, forbidding smoking. 
Which was the gentleman ? 

3d. Diminishing of physical power. The 
more power in a community, judiciously used, 
the more productive is that community, and 
the richer it will be. The lazy, weakened 



82 TOBACCO. 

Tobacco-lounger is an unproductive incubus. 

4th. Diminishing of mental force. The 
more thought the more vigor in society. " The 
time spent by a single individual in taking 
chews, and lighting and puffing pipes and 
cigars, would, if properly improved, in many 
instances, be sufficient to acquire a thorough 
knowledge of several useful sciences. Multi- 
ply this by the whole number of Tobacco- 
users, and it will amount to centuries of pre- 
cious time consumed not only in useless but 
degrading practices." The deranged Tobacco 
mind can be of little use, but a burden to 
others. 

5th. Financially. In this respect it is a 
great evil to the world. Whatever is spent in 
society for a useless, or a hurtful article, is so 
much loss. If a flour store of a million of 
barrels be consumed by fire, there is so much 
less flour in the country, and, consequently, if 
it be worth ten dollars a barrel, the country 



ITS SOCIAL EFFECTS. 83 

will be worth ten million dollars less. Flour 
is a useful article, while Tobacco is worse than 
useless. If millions of dollars be consumed 
in this article, this value might be invested in 
something useful, and so much added to the 
productive interests of society. Some may 
say that the money paid for it is still in the 
country. So it might be in the case of the 
flour, yet no one will deny that the burning of 
the flour is a loss. Though the money 
remains, it must be paid for flour, because the 
price must be proportionally higher ; but the 
money spent in this useless article might 
otherwise be spent for useful articles, so bene- 
fitting somebody ; whereas now it is a positive 
injury to society. 

Look at some facts concerning the amounts 
expended on this noxious weed. For the sin- 
gle item of cigars, there is more expended in 
these United States than for the education of 
the children in all its common schools. Would 



84: TOBACCO. 

it not be an advantage to society to spend this 
money for education ? Many people think 
themselves unable to dress decently enough to 
be found in the house of God on the Sabbath, 
and their constant excuse is poverty These 
same people consume, at a moderate estimate, 
Tobacco enough in forty years to amount, at 
compound interest, to $2,500 each. If they 
had a will to be found in the house of prayer, 
they could find a way. Most men, who use 
Tobacco, could save enough by dispensing 
with it, to pay their taxes, of which they com- 
plain so much. Tobacco and its appendages 
costs Great Britain £10,000,000 a year. This 
would pay quite a heavy tax. The total 
amount of Tobacco produced in the world is 
estimated as follows: Asia, 309,900,000 
pounds; Europe, 281,844,500 pounds ; Amer- 
ica, 248,280,500 pounds; Africa, 24,300,000 
pounds ; and Australia, 714,000 pounds ; 
making a total of nearly a billion pounds. 



ITS SOCIAL EFFECTS. 85 

The human family spend enough every year, 
for this useless article, to build two railroads 
around the earth, or sixteen railroads from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. 

Such a drain upon the value of the pro- 
ducts of the world cannot be otherwise than 
injurious in its social influence. With this 
value, how many poor might be fed and 
clothed ; how many Bibles might be sent to 
the heathen; how many churches might be 
built ; how many benevolent institutions sus- 
tained ; how many schools supported ? 

" The labor of producing Tobacco and pre- 
paring it for use, is amazing . Five and a-half 
millions of acres are cultivated in this soil- 
impoverishing crop throughout the world. In 
a great Tobacco factory in Seville, Spain, five 
thousand young girls are employed in a single 
room. In the city of Hamburg, ten thousand 
persons are engaged in the manufacture of 
cigars." 



86 TOBACCO. 

The following facts are taken from official 
statistics, received from Washington, and 
embrace the year ending June 30th, 1875 : 

The whole amount of revenue received on 
Tobacco was $37,303,461.88. This vast 
amount does not come out of the raiser, or 
the manufacturer, or the merchant, but ulti- 
mately out of the consumer. The estimated 
number of consumers in the country is 8,800,- 
000. The estimated annual amount to each 
of these, is 15 pounds of Tobacco and 246 
cigars. The number of pounds of Tobacco 
on which revenue was paid, was 128,615,190, 
and the number of cigars 1,967,959,662. The 
average expense of these, as now sold in the 
market, is 80 cts. per pound for Tobacco, and 
4 cts. each for cigars. This gives us, reckon- 
ing the imports and exports about equal, the 
vast sum of $102,892,152.00 consumed in the 
country for the use of this filthy weed. Be- 
sides this, there is a large quantity consumed 



■^ 



ITS SOCIAL EFFECTS. 87 

not embraced in the revenue report, so that, 
probably, the amount will reach §200,000,000. 

Taking the average for each consumer, we 
find it to be about $23.00. 

There are employed as manufacturers and 
salesmen over 450,000 men, who might be 
engaged in a more profitable industry. 

There is an increase in the revenue, but this 
does not positively indicate an increase in the 
consumption, though, doubtless, the latter 
increases every year. 

" In New York city alone, there are 200,- 
000 smokers, and nearly as many chewers of 
Tobacco, to say nothing of snuff-takers. It is 
estimated that its citizens spend daily over 
$10,000 for cigars, and less than $9,000 for 
bread. Many fashionable ladies smoke cigar- 
ettes, and a cigar dealer in Boston makes the 
astonishing announcement that he sells an 
average of 300 cigars daily for the use of the 
fair ones in New England." 



88 TOBACCO. 

People complain of hard times. If this 
waste was stopped, the hard times would be 
greatly softened. The panic has not lessened 
the consumption of Tobacco. Some church 
members use seventy-five dollars' worth a 
year. A young man confessed to smoking 
ninety-one dollars' worth of cigars in a year. 

If these are facts, of which there is no 
doubt in the minds of those who have inves- 
tigated the subject, there is great sin to society 
by this foolish waste of land, time and money. 

How are we to get rid of this evil ? The 

following fable will illustrate : 

"The rats once assembled in a large cellar 
to devise some method of safely getting the 
bait from a steel trap which lay near, having 
seen numbers of their friends and relatives 
snatched from them by its merciless jaws. 
After many long speeches and the proposal of 
many elaborate but fruitless plans, a happy 
wit, standing erect, said, 'It is my opinion 



ITS SOCIAL EFFECTS. 89 

that, if with one paw, we can keep down the 
spring, we can safely take the food from the 
trap with the other. 9 All the rats present 
loudly squealed assent. Then they were 
startled by a faint voice, and a poor rat, with 
only three legs, limping into the ring, stood 
up to speak : ; My friends, I have tried the 
plan you propose, and you see the result. Now 
let me suggest a plan to escape the trap : Let 
it alone P " That was a sensible rat. If you 
wish to escape the Tobacco-trap, let it alone. 

Another means of getting rid of the evil, 
may be used by the ladies as suggested by the 
following stanza : 

' ' May never lady press his lips, 

His proffered love returning, 
Who makes a furnace of his mouth, 

And keeps its chimney burning ! 
May each true woman shun his sight, 

For fear his fumes might choke her : 
Let none but those who smoke themselves. 

Have kisses for a smoker." 



90 TOBACCO. 

Such are the physical, mental, moral, and 
social effects of Tobacco. Self-interest, phi- 
lanthropy, patriotism, religion, and conscience 
all declare in favor of reform concerning this 
custom of wasting God's heritage to destroy 
God's creatures. May the soothing influence 
of a conscious rectitude, hereafter be a greater 
consolation than the narcotic poison of a nox- 
ious weed ! And may the " spirit of wisdom 
and a sound mind " pervade us, so that we 
may see how great is this gigantic evil ; and 
the " God of all grace " assist every one to 
do what is in his power to rid our land and 
earth of its curse ! 



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